


The Wrong Wine

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fic, Silly, manners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 19:57:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15372177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: Watson asks how Holmes discovered the impostor.  Written for JWP #20 over on Watson's Woes.





	The Wrong Wine

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Silly and rather pointless, but hopefully fun. And absolutely no beta. This was written in a huge rush. You have been warned.  
> Author's Notes: Written for the following prompt: Three Little Words. Use three - and only three - words from a given list in today's work. I chose the drinkables on the list, because it's Friday.

“But how did you know Blakely was an impostor?” I asked Holmes, both because I was curious, and because I knew there was very little my friend liked better than explaining how he had reached his conclusions at the end of a case.  
  
“It was the wine that clinched matters. Specifically, his choices and tastes in them throughout the meal.”  
  
“I don’t understand.”  
  
“His stateside accent was impeccable, I’ll grant him that, but so too were his table manners, and that was all wrong. This supposed long-lost heir, from a backwards part of rural America, not only knew how to correctly navigate and consume a multi-course, highly fashionable dinner, but also redirected the servant – yours truly – when he approached him with the ladies’ claret at the conclusion of the meal, instead of the gentlemen’s port.”  
  
“I see.” I thoughtfully swirled the brandy in my glass. “But Holmes, that means you already suspected. How did you know how wrong he was by being so correct?” I did not point out that Holmes’ own pronounced Bohemianism did not go hand-in-hand with intricate knowledge of formal details.  
  
Holmes smiled, reading my mind as always. “I didn’t, but the family butler certainly did. Over the course of the meal, he went from being stiffly disapproving of this ‘upstart’ to practically bursting with pride. I could hardly help but notice. He was good enough to voice his approval of the instinctive refinement of the bloodline to the housekeeper after the dishes were cleared away, and the news quickly spread among the staff.” He stretched, and reached for the decanter to refill his nearly-empty glass. “I shouldn’t be surprised if there was some training in service in Blakely’s background somewhere. Very few of our own nobility could match the knowledge he showed at that one dinner.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 20, 2018.


End file.
